


Fog over Sea

by Statementends (Blueberryshortcake)



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Bets are made, Cliff diving shouldn't be done like this, M/M, Peter/Elias at the very end, SAVE THE WHALES, peter's childhood, uncle simon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-10 22:24:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20535590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blueberryshortcake/pseuds/Statementends
Summary: Simon Fairchild meets Lukas' sons. He takes a shining to one of them.





	Fog over Sea

The Lukas’ were never a fun time. Nathaniel did his utmost to keep his bland grim pokerface and had instilled it into his children. The older one, Conrad, maybe twelve? He was a miniature of the Lukas patriarch. A serious solemn expression. The younger, Peter was more hidden behind his father’s trouser leg. Seven or eight. He was antsy. Holding still, but the nervous energy around him was palatable. Was it because he knew who Simon was? Or was it just that he was an important stranger?

“So why are the children here, Nate? I don’t mind. Just curious.”

Not a twitch. Nathaniel kept the dower expression. The only joy he got in these meetings was trying to make Nathaniel’s mask crack. 

“You are gone for long stretches of time. I want them to know you.”

As an ally or a threat? Probably both. Ever Lukas he had ever known was like Nathaniel. The boys beside him would no doubt be the same. They were good a biding time because they had generations to see their plans done. 

“Well then, they should introduce themselves, shouldn’t they?” Simon offered the boys an exaggerated smile. 

Peter clung to his father and ducked his head. 

Nathaniel physically pushed his son away. Wouldn’t want to be coddling.

The child stood, exposed. It wasn’t a fear of the wide open, but of the amount of people. Bait for the Ceaseless Watcher. Simon snorted. 

“P’ter.” The boy said quickly stepping back before Simon could offer a hand. 

Simon allowed it. He’d probably already have plenty of punishments from his father lined up, and something told him being alone in the wide open would be a comfort to this one. Anxious little thing. Part of being raised a Lukas. 

Conrad stepped up in front of him, held out his hand. No hesitation. Perhaps he wanted to show up his younger brother’s cowardice. It only revealed that Peter was the smart one.

“Conrad.” 

Simon took his hand. Nathaniel’s eyes didn’t even narrow when the boy’s hair seemed to jolt without him moving. Conrad gave a small yelp. 

“Simon.” Nathaniel interceded. 

Simon held up his hands, smiled with more teeth than necessary. 

And he saw it.

For just a flash.

Peter’s mouth twitching up as well. 

The smart one and the fun one. He’d have to remember that. 

-

He wasn’t completely sold on Fairchild Cruises, but Nathaniel having the boat made was a nice gesture. It was tempting, but he suspected it would benefit the One Alone more than anything else. 

Nice party though. A beautiful cliffside restaurant. A mixture of normal investers and Lukas’. It was a bit stuffy for his tastes, but there was a nice drop off the cliffs into the ocean below. 

Done with the gladhanding for now he snuck away to get a good look. Would Nathaniel be mad if he did some impromptu cliff diving? 

He might like to see his face at that, but the expression would probably be gloomy. He wandered up the path humming to himself and stopped.

Perhaps he shouldn’t have been surprised considering the amount of Lukas’ about, but there was someone already at the cliff’s edge, all alone. Coming closer, he realized it was one of the Lukas boys. Conner? And… Peter. Yes. That same anxious energy. It was definitely Peter. 

The fifteen year old was smoking, a nasty habit for young lungs. Around him there was a faint mist picking up. He may not be the ideal Lukas, but the One Alone did have its favourites. 

He approached casually, startling the boy who threw his cigarette off the cliff in a poor attempt to hide what he had been doing. 

“Peter!” He greeted like they were old pals. Peter had gotten better at the Lukas Grimace, but his eyes still widened with recognition.

“Mr. Fairchild.”

“Simon, my boy. Mr. Fairchild what what the shareholders call me.” He clapped Peter on the shoulder. The boy tensed up. 

“You know, you shouldn’t litter in the ocean.” 

“I wasn’t--”

“Come on now. A fish could eat that cigarette. Choke and die.”

“I ah… I’m… sorry?” 

“Haven’t you heard about saving the whales?” Simon liked whales. The giants of the sea. He had always wished there was something similar in the sky. Shame about the Quetzalcoatlus…

“Besides,” Simon continued on. “It’s not good for you. You won’t be able to catch your breath.” He grinned. He wasn’t a subtle man.

“Right.” Peter said. He shifted from foot to foot, not making eye contact. He aimed his gaze at the open sea. 

“Do you like it?” Simon asked, with perhaps a bit of pride. It was the Fallen Titan after all. Blue sky, green ocean, nothing on the horizon. Just littered boats. 

“Yes,” Peter said without a smile, although there was a little smile in his voice. “It’s quiet.” 

“No people the farther you go out.” 

“Right…” 

“Do you know what cliff diving is?”

Peter tensed again. He looked in the old man’s direction nervously. “Yes…”

“Want to go cliff diving?” 

Peter glanced back towards the party, then at Simon.

“No.”

“You sure?”

“I would die.”

Simon barked with amusement. Dying. As if that stopped anyone now-a-days.

“What if I made a bet with you?”

Peter was losing his frown. Probably took his concentration to maintain it. He was thinking now. 

“What’s the bet?” He asked. 

“If I win you go cliff diving with me.”

“And if I win?”

“I’ll sign the contract over this Cruise line deal with your father.” 

All you have to do to goad a Lukas was grab the family honour by the jewels. 

Peter slowly nodded.

“Alright. And what are we betting on?” 

“Who can ‘pull’ someone faster.”

“Wait-” Peter protested. He might be favoured by his god, but he wasn’t expert yet.

“Threetwoonego.” Simon left his side beelining back to the party. 

Needless to say, Simon won the bet. 

“That wasn’t fair.”

They were back on the edge of the cliff. Peter, to his credit, didn’t look afraid. Just annoyed. 

“My boy, we are heralds of fear. Some might call us villains. We don’t do fair. Where’s the fun in losing? Let that be a lesson to you. Never make a bet you’re not going to win.” 

Peter breathed deeply. Mist was getting thicker. Fog rolled off the waves. A defense mechanism. 

“Now, now, if you had brought out the big guns in the first place you might have actually won. Now.” He clapped Peter on the back. 

“Feel the thrill of the endless!” 

And they were falling. 

The tug of velocity in his stomach was a welcome friend. The party had been so dull up until this point. 

The two of them fell through an endless sky towards an endless sea. No cliff, no restaurants, no little scatter of boats. 

He looked over at Peter. 

He looked… serene. For the first time. Fear and nervousness was gone. He looked toward the ocean where a fog started to billow and then up and around them. He had to feel the choke of adrenaline. He had to be struggling for air. But no.

He lost Peter in the fog. The chill of loneliness was novel. He had stopped caring about the little ant lives of human beings many many years ago. 

Oh. Usually the Dread Powers worked at odds… but loneliness and vastness did go hand and hand… don’t they?

He closed his eyes and reached out. Grabbed Peter’s hand. 

The fog was gone. The endless sky and sea were gone.

Peter gasped for breath beside him. They had landed on an abandoned sailboat far off the coast. Oh well. His family won’t miss him. That’s not how they are. 

“Pretty good, right?” Simon grinned. 

Peter grinned back. Actually grinned, his young face lighting up making him look so human compared to his corpse-like relatives. 

“That was… that was fun.”

“Oh, you are definitely my favourite. Now then. Know anything about sailing a boat?”

-

Peter had grown up lean and tall. All the nervous energy was gone, or at least hidden well if you didn’t know the man. He conducted himself differently from the rest of the family. He was positively chatty. He secretly wondered if he was the cause of that. He couldn’t think of anyone else who spoke more than five words at a time he’d interact with. He had also picked up a love of gambling. There was always a little bet between them when they’d occasionally run into each other. He never let Peter win of course. The boy had to know his place after all. It was fun to watch him scheme though. 

Peter must be twenty now. Maybe past it. It was a coincidence that they ran into each other and had settled at a little bar by the Atlantic. The sky was stormy. It would keep some people in port longer than they’d like. Probably not Peter though. 

“So. How did it happen?” The One Alone dripped from Peter Lukas. Stronger than it had even been with Nathianel. Or Jeremiah a few generations back. Jeremiah had been fond of wilderness. Loneliness did have many flavours. 

“The isolation?” Peter asked. “I don’t really want to go into it.” 

In general, Peter was only good for about twenty minutes of conversation before his anxiety got to him. And that was with Simon a… friend. Uncle? He liked to think of himself as the boy’s uncle. Especially because he knew Nathaniel would hate that. 

“But it had to do with the ocean, right?” 

Peter nodded. “There was… a ship. Throwing nuclear waste into the water. They spotted us. A tiny shipping vessel compared to them. They didn’t want witnesses. The captain threw me overboard. I spent… years in the water. I think I…” 

“Almost.”

“Almost?”

“Terminus takes us all. But your patron has spared you the fate for now. You’re tied closer to the One Alone than you are with death. You didn’t die… but you were reborn.” He was only surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. He didn’t press for details. He had heard enough awakenings to know how it felt. How it was terrible and wonderful and home. He still remembered his own. 

He was… tickled that Peter had spent ages under the water though. That was fitting. 

“You were right you know.” Peter said staring off at the roiling ocean. 

“Oh? About what?”

“Saving the whales.” 

-

Of all the. 

Another function. Money money money. It was so boring. He was so ready to write off humanity and live as a hermit until the space age went into full swing or their pointless rock was wiped out. The only reason he was here was because he knew Peter would be and he liked to check in on his favourite nephew. Might as well have fun while he can. Peter would be dead in the blink of an eye. How old was he now? It blurred together. He was middle age now. When had that happened? Simon’s trip to Canada had run a little long, but they had so much good ocean and clear sky over there. 

But. He was here to catch up. Maybe make a bet. But Peter was focused on someone else.

Peter. Focused on someone. 

Peter not drawing into the shadows, or out the door to a convenient boat. 

He was practically hovering. 

His first impression of Peter came back with odd clarity. Beholding bait. 

Elias Bouchard had a smooth handsome visage and piercing eyes. Every so often those eyes would be tugged in Peter’s direction. A little knowing smile. 

Simon had lived on this earth long enough to know what THAT means. Getting in bed with the eye. Voyeur kinks all the way down. 

He pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. How had that happened? Why would Nathaniel even allow it? 

Well… he couldn’t even remember the last time he had seen Nathaniel. Years and years… maybe he was tired of the world too. Maybe he was happily lost in the endless graveyard. 

He watched the two of them finish up different conversations and close in on each other. Elias, Head of the Magnus Institute. He wasn’t the Archivist. But the Heart of the Institute had his own dangers attached. 

Peter smiled cheerfully and started chatting to Elias who kept a polite, but bored expression plastered to his face.

But his eyes were almost unblinkingly focused on Peter. 

Peter was a grown man. He could do as he pleased and dally with who he liked.

But … no. There was an angle. There had to be. Elias could have been wrapped up with the Mother of Puppets for all the schemes he liked to conduct. And Peter? Well…

He waited a polite amount of time and interrupted the couple. 

“Mr. Bouchard! Peter!” 

“Oh! Simon!” Peter blinked, surprised by his entrance. “I haven’t seen you in…”

“I lose track of time easily. Don’t take that down, Bouchard.” 

“No, of course.” Elias said a second away from an eyeroll. He looked between Peter and Simon. “I’ll give you two a moment to catch up.” He said politely, although his eyes narrowed a bit towards Simon. 

Simon blew a raspberry in his head and pulled Peter to one side.

“You’ve been away for awh--” Peter began.

“Elias Bouchard?”

“Ah.”

“You’re a grown man, and to keep breeding Lukas’ I know your father must have explained the birds and the bees, but…”

“I know it’s not a conventional match.”

“Putting aside the Ceaseless Watcher for a moment, his personality alone…” 

“There’s more to him than he shows.”

“I’m aware. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” 

“I… enjoy his company.

“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or…”

“It’s not that he makes me feel lonely… he makes me feel… known and… it hurts a bit… after all this time, but… I suppose with him I don’t have to hide things. He just… already understands. But he doesn’t get a clear pictures. I think that’s part of the mystic. I think he’s bored of people he can pick apart easily.”

“Opposites attract?”

“I’m going to ask him to marry me.”

Simon winced. There was absolutely no way Bouchard was going to say yes to that. “I don’t think… he doesn’t seem… like the marrying type.” 

Peter grinned. “Elias is definitely a gold digger. He’ll jump at the chance. And. He loves me… as much as any of us can.” 

“How does your father feel about it?”

“You think my father feels anything about it?” Peter snorted. “The family can be as disappointed as they want. A bit of space is always good for us.”

“Hm.”

“Are you really trying to stop me?”

Was he really? What was the point? A relationship that would never happen really. He patted Peter’s shoulder.

“I’ll make you a bet.” Peter said.

“Oh? You know I do like bets.”

“If you win I owe you a favour. If I win you owe me a favour.” 

Did he have need of favours? Well favours from the Lukas family wasn’t something to turn down. 

“Alright. You are 0 for … how many is it again?”

“I’m going to ask him to marry me. If he says yes, I win the bet.”

Simon laughed. Knowing he already lost, he shook Peter’s hand. 


End file.
